


Vlad's Retellings

by Leon_Mercury



Category: Pathfinder (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: F/M, Fire, Kitsune, M/M, Masks, Murder, Orphans, Sorcerers, Team as Family, Unrequited Crush, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-13 14:30:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14750661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leon_Mercury/pseuds/Leon_Mercury
Summary: Vladimir retells his story, up to the final battle.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I got bored, felt like it'd be interesting telling the story of Vlad's life/the campaign through Vlad's eyes.

Vladimir sits in a corner, surprised to be recognized in such a bustling inn. With a flick of the wrists he changes his outfit as you voice your request, "Oh, you wish to know my story? You're really sure? Oh, very well, then..."

I suppose it all started when I was the happy age of 5. You know, that age where you don't fully understand the world, but can still process things and remember them? At Devinsphere Manor, every day was lessons. But they were enjoyable. As a house known for its myriad of magical bloodlines, we had to keep up our reputation for having fantastic sorcerers to match those bloodlines. My personally most prominent ones were my Orc and Draconic bloodlines, which was not a very good combo - from an early age I recall there being voices in my head, edging me to do this thing or that. Initially my mother believed them to be my imaginary friends, but imaginary friends aren't typically Golak the Bloody, a 400-year-old orcish warlord, and Ziaz, an ancient golden dragon that was considered a paragon of virtue with many titles in his lifetime. My mother had to explain to me what a "purifier" was. And also teach me how to drown out the voices so I could make unclouded decisions, especially as an impressionable child.  
Where was I? Ah yes, 5 years old. The lesson that day involved learning the most basic of magics: reading magic. But the excitement didn't truly happen until the sun sank down below the horizon.  
I remember waking up smelling smoke. Having a dad who enjoyed tinkering with magic, I was familiar with it. But father would most definitely have snuffed out the any smoke or flames before it heavily seeped under my door. I jumped out of bed in a panic, rushing out of my room. I saw flames licking the room opposite mine, which had been my sister's. I was so scared by her horrific screams, but the handle was far too hot for me to help. I rushed downstairs to get my parents - where were they?!  
It wasn't until I made it to the landing that I knew where they were. Wizards had broken into the manor, and torched the place. I knew this because one was stabbing my father in the middle of the foyer. I held my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. My mother was taking on three others not even 50 paces away by herself, and more than holding her own. A master of nonsomatic casting, she was dancing around the floor to dodge their spells while throwing a magic missile here, a ray of frost there... Until she saw me. She hesitated. The last thing I remember is her screaming face before it was rapidly charred to a crisp. Then I remember waking up in the middle of a large foundation of ash. The last of my line...

To perhaps explain why people would dare attack the great House Devinsphere, I should perhaps also explain what had happened 17 years before. That was the end of a bloody war, the ultimate civil war that nobody remembers how it started. I suppose you wouldn't have heard of it - people higher up have been preventing it from being told for quite some time. But with the end of the masks, I suppose there's no need to be secret about it. The important information for this part of my story is that my parents were involved in it. All of House Devinsphere was, which is how it dwindled to solely my parents. Well, you don't exactly become a fan-favorite when you fireball enemy villages. And some of the survivors decided to hit the books when they wished to enact revenge. Hence wizards breaking into Devinsphere Manor and burning it to the ground. And leaving me an orphan through means I cannot recall. Well, aside from killing my parents. I still don't know how _I_ survived, though.

But yes, back to me in the ash pile. I wept for a good half a day, if I recall. Authorities arrived and attempted to question me, but I ran off. Not exactly my proudest moment. As a coping mechanism at the time, I had reasoned that the wizards had killed my family because we were renowned sorcerers, and that sorcerers were superior for wizards due to their magic being innate, as opposed to wizards "using something that's not theirs", also known as Arcane Magic. Yet again, this is not exactly my proudest moment, and it would lead into my young adulthood. Moving on! I survived a few days running. From what, I don't know. Authorities, my grief, ghosts, the reemerged voices in my head... could have honestly been anything. Until I arrived at an orphanage, collapsing dehydrated and malnourished on their doorstep.  
They brought me back up to health within a month, and I ended up meeting Vincent Vulpescu within the week after my recovery. He was a prankster by trade as a kitsune, and I ended up on the butt-end of his pranks - until he tried to prank me in his human form and I recognized him immediately. He was surprised by this and we became fast friends shortly after that. And then Victoria came into our lives... but that's a tale for another time. I have things to do and elements to keep in balance. Until next time!


	2. The Girl Born Dead

Ah, you've returned for my tale again? I honestly don't understand why you find it so interesting. Now, where did we leave off? Ah, the orphanage...

So after Vincent and I became friends, we started recounting tales, playing together, all that nonsense. We were kids, after all. Two years of this went on before a young girl arrived on the orphanage' s doorstep. She had pale skin and ebony hair. Much like with me, the orphanage busybodies tried to nurse her back to health, though discovered it to be a difficult endeavor.

You see, this young girl was a half-vampire. Which meant that while she would not burst into flames in the sun, healing magic had a high likelihood of killing her rather than helping her. Vincent seemed drawn to the girl, fascinated by this mystery that appeared as if out of thin air. He visited her every day during free time, and I joined him with nothing better to do. I had never seen this side of him, and it was disconcerting to see him lacking his normal vibrance. She was catatonic for the first week, but somehow she pulled through.

By the ninth day she was conscious enough to speak, and her first words, with magical motes of light within her face and ladies in white bustling around, were, "am I dead?"

Vincent assured her she wasn't, and explained the situation she was currently in. She nodded and uttered a "thank you" before falling asleep, still in a weakened state. She awoke again the next day, and Vincent pressed her for answers. Over the next week, he gradually managed to piece her story together...

Her name was Victoria, and she was born a slave like her mother before her. Vampires required sustenance, but like mortals they also had desires... of the flesh. Victoria had been the result of the improper handling of a "doll" as her masters called them. Her father being a vampire, she aged slower than her mother, and was still deemed a slave because of her living half. She was age 40 -physically and mentally 8 for humans - when her mother died, still too young to be used as a doll herself. While mourning this loss, the shadows themselves seemed to curl around her in comfort.

Victoria realized she was controlling the shadows and recalled back to when her mother had tried telling her of her past. Her mother was a sorceress, and dark power flowed through her veins. Victoria could also use this power, now...

While the guards weren't watching, she practiced day after day for a whole year, until she was confident in her ability to escape. Sticking to the shadows, she succeeded in getting out of the vampiric castle she had lived her entire life in, surrounded by dense woods. And ran. She kept running, living off berries and stream water. She reached the end of the forest, and felt a pang on her chest. Much like the poison she was always injected with to keep her sedated. Some of those berries had not been kind, but she had to keep going. She endured the pain and made her way for a week before finding herself at the orphanage, and collapsing on the doorstep much like I had. How she survived that long was a mystery, but she did.

And that brought us up to speed. Vincent noted that he had collapsed after a week's travel as well on the doorstep. I noted I had as well. What an interesting coincidence. Especially since the place Victoria had mentioned sounded familiar. The forest sounded exactly like one far to the east. It would have taken ages for her to arrive if it was a mere week away from the ashes of Devinsphere manor... What was this place?

Yet again, I need to leave. Apologies. I suppose it is entertaining to tell this tale, so please do come find me again when I am free.


End file.
